A World Not Ours wins top Edinburgh film festival prize

Mahdi Fleifel’s refugee documentary wins Best Film in the International Competition. Experimental doc Leviathan wins Best British Feature.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The winners have been announced at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The ceremony, held at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse this afternoon, saw the award for Best Film in the International Competition presented to Mahdi Fleifel’s A World Not Ours(Lebanon/UAE/Denmark/UK).

The jury also gave a special mention to Elias Giannakakis’ Joy.

South Korean director Bong Joon Ho chaired the International Feature Film Competition Jury, which also included actress Natalie Dormer and film critic Siobhan Synnot.

The jury citation read: “The International Jury loved this film’s warm regard for the people at the heart of the film. A difficult subject was handled with confidence and humour.”

Fleifel said: “I have lived, studied and worked in the UK for 13 years, but I’ve never managed to screen any of my work at a single British film event - not even my short films which were pretty successful internationally.

“Winning the prize in Britain’s number one film festival is too good to be true. I hope this will help bring our film to a wider audience in the UK.”

The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film went to Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s experimental documentary Leviathan (UK/USA/France).

The winner was chosen by a jury chaired by Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf and including actor and director Kevin McKidd and film critic Derek Malcolm.

The jury described the film “as an original and imaginative documentary which observes the brutal routine of deep sea fishing in a way which completely immerses the watcher in its story.”

Castaing-Taylor and Paravel said: “All our films have been rejected by every British film festival to date, so it is all the more moving for us. It also gives us the courage and conviction to continue to keep pushing at the envelope - of cinema, of documentary, of art.”

The jury awarded a special commendation to Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril.

The award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film was shared by Jamie Blackley and Toby Regbo for their performances as the dysfunctional schoolboys in uwantme2killhim?. The performance awards were voted for by the Michael Powell Award competition jury.

Reinstated in 2013 after a two-year absence, the Audience Award went to Fire in the Night (UK) directed by Anthony Wonke for his documentary detailing the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea.

GHL by Lotte Schreiber won the award for Best Short Film in the shorts category. The prize was one of three awards bestowed by the Short Film Competition Jury, which included International Film Festival Rotterdam programmer Inge de Leeuw (chair), film critic Christoph Huber and independent film programmer Ricardo Matos Cabo.

The award for Creative Innovation in a Short Film, given for the first time this year, was awarded to Doll Parts by Muzi Quawson, as voted for by the Shorts Jury.

Another newly introduced award within the shorts category, the award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to a Short Film, which celebrates imaginative and innovative work in short cinema, was awarded to Josh Gibson as Director of Photography of Light Plate, which he also directed.

The jury also gave a special mention to Charlotte Rabate for Lucille In The Sky; Ivan Castineiras for The Border; and Anna Frances Ewert for Endless Day.

As voted for by the audience, the McLaren Award for Best New British Animation, supported by the British Council, went to Marilyn Myller by director Mikey Please and co-animator Dan Ojari.

The Student Critics Jury Award was awarded to Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari by Alexey Fedorchenko.

The ceremony took place ahead of Sunday’s closing night gala, Not Another Happy Ending, which concludes the 12-day festival

Full list of winners

Best film in the international competition A World Not Ours (dir. Mahdi Fleifel)

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